Simon Butler The T-Shirt Surgeon

This week we have a designer from the North of England, a designer who only recently got into t shirt design.I came across Simon from one of the daily tee sites, and loved his ‘take’ on popular subjects so I was thrilled when he agreed to an interview here at Geek Shirts HQ

Can you start by giving some background about yourself? Where you are from? What is your background? How did you get into design?

My name is Simon Butler, I’m 37 and I’m from North Yorkshire, UK.

I was lucky enough to get a job in video game design straight out of college back in 2005 and after being made redundant a few years later I set up on my own and I now work as a freelance games artist and illustrator.

I only discovered t-shirt design about 6 months ago but so far it’s going great.

Where do you get your inspiration for your designs?

TV, films, video games, comedy and music are all massive inspirations but I only really design for myself. It makes things a lot easier if you’ve only got yourself to please!

I don’t bother trying to predict what’s going to be popular or jump on the band wagon of what’s selling well a particular week, if it interests me and it’s something I’d like to wear then I’ll have a bash at it. If it turns out to be successful then that’s an added bonus!

How would you describe your design style?

I like to think I have a varied and adaptable style. I like to try new things with every design I work on.

Sometimes an illustrative piece will fit in with what’s cooking up inside my head, and other times I’ll go with a more traditional graphical approach. It’s good to push yourself and I’m always trying to improve and learn new methods so t-shirt design is great for that.

When you create a new t shirt design, what is sort of process do you follow?

When I first started designing shirts, I’d spend a few days working on the designs at print ready resolution but that’s not really practical especially as there’s a good chance your design (especially your first ones) won’t go to print.

I now spend 1 – 2 hours tops on any new designs I create at a lower resolution then I’ll work on a high res version if I’m lucky enough to have that particular design go to print. This method saves A LOT of time.

Looking at your own portfolio what is your favourite design and why?

I like my Studio Ghibli designs just because I’m such a big fan of the movies, but if I’m honest I think the recent Bioshock inspired design I’ve just done has to be my favourite.

I’ve wanted to do a cereal box design for quite a while now so I was pretty excited when this idea popped into my head .

What current projects are you working on now? And can we get an exclusive peek?

Away from the t-shirt side of things I’m busy finalising a graphic novel project which has been in the works for a long time. it’s called Enter The Hero and it’s going to be published by Arcana Comics hopefully around autumn time.

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